When I came in country
Been reading the thread about Kit Carson scouts. When I came in country, we had a guy named “Jerry.” He seemed to be really tight with our Lt. & Platoon Sgt. so I accepted him. Screeching stop! Jerry worked with us, Tom worked with 2nd platoon. Tom & Jerry? Ha! How come I never noticed that in ‘Nam? ???
It was a super sad & poignant day when Jerry left us, apparently for another assignment. He came around and shook everyone’s hand then said a big “Hello” and left. Apparently he got the words “hello” and “goodbye” mixed up. We answered “hello” back and waved goodbye. “Where the hell is he going?” the Ltee asked. “I don’t know.” was the answer. ???
We had several more chieu hois, but the scariest was a scarred, unsmiling, hard-faced guy who showed up one day. He looked like he had been fighting a war since he was an infant. Was this guy a real chieu hoi, we thought? He just emanated a huge dislike for us Americans. We gave him a wide berth. That very night, he disappeared, back to the NVA, we assumed. ???
One of the real neat things that is posted in the picture site are the Chieu Hoi safe conduct passes that used to be all over the ground on the Z. The one propaganda thing that I wish I kept were those NVA Christmas cards that mysteriously appeared on the ground everywhere in December 1969. They showed a drawing of Santa Claus pointing behind him and the caption was “Go Home.” On the reverse side was a drawing of a woman sitting at a desk with a picture of a G.I. the caption was “Wish he were home.” Anyone lucky enough to have one of those souvenirs?
Pineapple (Cooper has a copy of this on the website)
FROM 31 MARCH 1971 TROOP ROSTER
1st Plt
Tham
Minh
2nd Plt
Nghem Tam Bang
Tham
3rd Plt
Vo-Hue (HUE)
Tham Nhen (Seymore)
Phan Set
From Buddy Puryear:
Scout Mien was a former NVA Lt. who came over to our side. Another scout was named Billy — he really never had converted to our side and was KIA in a firefight. Don’t know to this day if Charlie got him or someone in our unit! Mien was OK. I have wondered what happened to him after the US pulled out of Nam.